BENGALURU: How tough is it to run a marathon (42.195 km) without getting enough water to drink? Ask India's national record holder OP Jaisha who collapsed at the end of the gruelling run in Rio, thanks to the apathy of Indian officials who provided nothing, not even water, during the women's race at refreshment points.

"Though there were officials from all other countries to provide refreshments to their runners at designated points -after every 2.5 km -there was no one from India and our desks were empty next to the country's name and flag," a distraught Jaisha told TOI here recalling her ordeal.

"I don't know how I managed to finish without getting enough water to drink. The organizers provided water and sponge only at 8-km intervals. The water from these stations lasted hardly 500m and it was almost impossible to run after the 30-km mark under the scorching sun," said Jaisha, who finished the race in 2 hours, 47.19s. She had clocked 2:34.43s in Beijing Worlds last year to finish 18th.

"While other athletes had the luxury of taking glucose, honey etc there was nothing for us (Jaisha and Kavita) to drink at our stations. Not even water," Jaisha said, her voice choking with emotion.

The experienced distance runner said she collapsed at the end of the race and didn't know what happened till she regained consciousness after 2-3 hours. "They injected seven bottles of glucose to help me recover. I didn't see any doctor from our contingent while help came from fellow marathon runner Gopi T and coach Radhakrishnan Nair. Coach Nikolai was also there for few hours before he was taken away by the organizers," she said.

"I was OK for the next few days. But now I'm feeling very weak and it will take at least 2-3 months of ayurvedic treatment and massage for my body to recover," said the top athlete who reached here on Saturday night. According to SAI doctors, she has fever, but Jaisha refused to get admitted to a hospital.

As per IAAF rules, India could have assigned four officials at four points -apart from the official stations -to provide water and refreshments to the athletes. "It is the duty of the coach and federation officials to assign people for this. One country's athletes are not supposed to drink from stuff kept for others as it could lead to a warning and then disqualification," informed sources told TOI.

The Kerala athlete also blamed her coach Nikolai Snesearev for forcing her to run the marathon. "I wanted to qualify in the 1500m (after the Mumbai marathon) but the coach forced me to continue in marathon," she said.

"Even when I suffered an injury during the training period the coach didn't give me time to recover. Moreover, we always trained early in the morning, first in Ooty and later in Rio. So, it was tough to adjust to the heat here," she added.

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Re: Rio 2016: No water, no officials as Jaisha struggles to complete marathon

Quote:

Originally Posted by swami

Even after she fainted, it was Rio’s officials who came to help. India’s official team doctor was nowhere to be seen,says some other new sources.

Hope Modiji is aware of all these

The officials got once in a lifetime chance of a Rio trip. They would obviously use it for more valuable purposes like checking copacabana beach, carnival, etc. and they were helping the spirit of olympics "It is about participating, not winning or losing "

Modiji has set up a task force but that's after the fact. Marvi Pai would have highlighted that more medals were won during MMS Sarkar.
BTW, nightlife in Tokyo is supposed to be quite enjoyable. You could get into the task force and visit Tolyo to 'study the conditions'.

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This is quite a game, politics. There are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends,only permanent interests. - Some Firang

As they say, 'Bad se Badnaam bura'. It is too easy to believe anything against the officials. And I also gave some guesses of their thoughts. Since 80s, like Anita Sood, Vijay Amritraj, almost every famous sportsperson has had problems with officials.

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This is quite a game, politics. There are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends,only permanent interests. - Some Firang

Re: Rio 2016: No water, no officials as Jaisha struggles to complete marathon

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgars

As they say, 'Bad se Badnaam bura'. It is too easy to believe anything against the officials. And I also gave some guesses of their thoughts. Since 80s, like Anita Sood, Vijay Amritraj, almost every famous sportsperson has had problems with officials.

Re: Rio 2016: No water, no officials as Jaisha struggles to complete marathon

Quote:

Originally Posted by swami

Even after she fainted, it was Rio’s officials who came to help. India’s official team doctor was nowhere to be seen,says some other new sources.

Hope Modiji is aware of all these

Yeah magician Modi.

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"You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."